August 18, 2008

When 28 year old Kathryn Fridge heard that Tropical Storm Edouard was bounding for the Gulf Coast, she headed to the local Wal-Mart with her Mom to stock up on supplies. They especially needed batteries, but found the shelves bare. "Dang," she said to her Mom, "They're all fucking gone."

It might have ended there, but standing in the next aisle was Captain Alfred Decker, the LaMarque Assistant Fire Marshall. He overheard the remark, and with words more typically used to reprimand a 5 year old, told Ms. Fridge to "watch her mouth." Fridge says she apologized and walked away, but then Decker ordered her to come back. When she refused, Decker pulled out his handcuffs.

Fridge apparently agreed to follow Decker to his car where he kept his citation book, and admits to using a few choice words on the way. But the Fire Chief, defending Decker's actions, said Fridge became belligerent and was making such a scene that something had to be done. So Decker cuffed her. "When you're in uniform, you have to uphold the laws," he told the Houston, Chronicle earlier this week. "Its like if he was on the way home and saw a drunk driver - he had to act."

Really? Because swearing will kill you . . . just like drunk driving?

I've blogged a couple times about disorderly conduct cases related to profanity. Very few of them involve plausible grounds for a valid arrest stemming from the use of language that falls outside the First Amendment. Fighting words are seldom involved, or abusive, harassing language that rises to the level of threatening conduct. So why the over-reaching?

I see overplayed stereotypes at work here, since so many of these cases involve women using language the old guard would consider "un-lady like." Of course some of us find swearing cathartic, empowering even. But I guess that's the point. Still, these cases are ridiculous even if gender conformity isn't an issue given the First Amendment implications.

Not to mention the colossal waste of time and resources that otherwise might be spent tracking down drunk drivers.